(Hell)fire and Brimstone...

ummm

ummm, great, so probably would cost a few hundred squid, but my mind straight away went for "single point of failure" ie... all that money for a single disk... a single scratch and its all gone... read only...... means another disk is needed...

Seeing as its difficult to return opened dvds of any sort... can't see that changing... which means money down the drain/rather big risk (I'm quite good with my disks... but still accidents and damage do occur).

lies, damn lies and statistics...

Mass Driver

So you want to send the waste to the sun... easy... build a mass driver and send it that way... you want to power it... well, you have a few larger reactors....

Until we can build the sorts of solar arrays that are in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 or have a suitably mature alternate power source, Nuclear is the only decent solution. Nuclear needs to last, what... 20-100 years until we have the other technologies mature enough to replace it with higher efficiency 'cleaner' alternatives...

I suppose we could always burn all dead biomatter and use that.... anyone???

oops

Oops, I wish I'd seen that comparison before! I think I may have ordered the wrong thing! Quick, to the supply closet, that lies through the dark forrest... I'm sure I can reset the power then hide in the kitchen!

I'll take 4

misc

They are preparing for the unexpected. It's easy to be able to plan to fight the last day of the last war, but the next one may be very different indeed!

All those aricraft won't be in the same place, they'd be stationed on carriers and bases across the world. Not to mention some kept as spares, trainers and test aircraft. I doubt they would be in one big order arriving on a Tues, they'd probably be arriving over an extended period.

They may be anti-sub designed, but consider also patrolling our coastal shores for smugglers, illegal immagrents or the flavour of the day; terrorists. What about when they are used to look for little kids that are swept out to shore due to a boating incident?!

The guys risk their lives to fight to protect the peace all over the world, to protect us, to prevent conflicts escalating, to bring others to a close, all sorts.

Remember also our commitments to the UN, NATO and other treaty groups?

Consider also maintenance costs for everything we have. It can actually, often, be cheaper to replace something with a new device/component/vehicle, then to look for older pieces, sometimes from some groups who no longer make that part. Oh, lets ebay for a wing for a nimrod or scavenge it from a crash somewhere.

These guys are going out there and they deserve not only our support, but also confidence in the quipment they are using. Their families and friends expect them to come back and they place their trust on the line too.

We need to be able to stand on our own if need be, not have to rely on other countries to have to ferry our forces from A-B.

How about, next time there is a conflict, the government just make BA and the other airlines use all their lovely aircraft to ferry our troops to wherever they need to be and we all sit around and NOT fly on holiday or to work or wherever. That's one alternative to our underinvested transport services.

If you were out in conflict, you can't afford doubt about what you're doing and is it right? You have to act to stay alive, keep your team alive and complete the objectives of your mission. You trust in the chain of command and those in power, that they are making the right decision.

lol

movies

Um, remember that most films are based in some way on a book, comic, game or remake of something previous or on real life.

Most of the unique/classic style of films don't really get the limelight or much publicity because they are so different.

People go into films having seen trailors, read the book, played the game, seen a previous film and they have preconceptions and expect it to be just like what they expect. Everyone is unique.

I don't care if it follows the game or not. For me, any film based on something like that, does not have to follow what we all expect, far from it, it is something to explore the 'universe' of that game and to expand on things. The Doom series of games is one thing, but the film opened up the publicity for it again. There will obviously be people who have never played Doom (for whatever reason, age, no access to pc, game is too 'low graphics' for them, whatever), but they now have an experience of Doom.

The FPS part of the film is awesome, yes its short, possibly too short, but if the entire film was like that, then the viewer would see a vent and wonder why the character didn't go through it or would have switched weapon sooner or something. Would you play a game where you actually have no control of anything your doing, at all, but just sit there and watch it happen? Probably not.

Instead of always comdemning everything when you hear something new is coming out, why not actually wait to see it for yourself? Its not your money that they are using to make it. People, in general, are too quick to be negative and complain.

As long as your entertained for a while, then what does it really matter?

Of course, you could feel free to write your own [unique] movie script and pitch that... Maybe if instead of people using all the time they spend complaining, to actually spend it being creative, then there may be more unique films out there? Or games?

the gate

time...

I'm checking here in the morning after I read mail (sometimes before)... I'm on throughout the day and when I'm at lectures, I visit it on my laptop... I'll often even visit the site from my blackberry....

Oh by all means we are entitled to our opinion. Jump to conclusions, claim who we believe is at fault, but I'm bloody damn well glad that none of us has any real power in this. Its up to the judge/jury/whoever to look at all the Evidence and then make a decision. The media loves to dramatise things. The ONLY reason this has got a rather big media frenzy is because there was a video, released publicly... yet we see practically nothing said about the recent attacks and murders where I live.

The officers acted in a way they believed was the right thing to do. Without actually being in their position, knowing what they knew and facing the same situation, we don't know how we'd act. Oh we'd like to think we'd know, but in truth, we dont. EG You can prepare for weeks for a presentation in front of quite a few people, but then when you go to do it, you can choke and lose it.

The bottom line here, is that the poor man cannot defend himself, give his reasons or speak up, more importantly, the officers will have to live with their actions.

The key lesson here, is probably to ensure that staff and officers communiate more and to be a bit more cautious. Regardless though, a swift and preferably non-violent solution should be a priority.

On a sidenote... how many minutes later was the ambulance team that arrived... did they really do 'everything' to save him? I'd like to think they did... but after being zapped by a taser quite a bit... I wouldn't be surprised if there was nerve damage...

My heart goes out to his family and friends.

To everyone else that reads this, instead of "jumping on the bandwaggon" or making accusations, remember that you don't know all the facts, they all probably wont be known for a little while yet, maybe change your perception once in a while and place yourself in another persons shoes, try a different perspective. Everyone has their own reasons and beliefs... one of the greatest causes of conflict is that so few people are willing to respect the differences between people or even to try to see another point of view.

I believe the TRUE IT angle here... is what OS was the computer using that he 'destroyed'?!

@fanboys

Bottom line:

Business's want software that had support. There are a number of OSes out there and each has their own use, but the bottom line is that there is a decent amount of software out ther ethat works on Windows. If you can find a decent alternative to all of the 100s of applications that some companies use (1000s when you consider some of the larger companies), that all have support, DECENT documentation, are remotely manageble, have a suitable learing curve and are still supported, then kudos for you. BUT, any decent LARGE business out there would have to go through hell and back with finance and putting through a business case for any software used, usually tested against other alternatives, including free versions. I've seen it before that it comes back to going with what works and what has support (ever heard of an Service Level Agreement? Try getting one of those on something with a GPL!).

What sort of puppy?

Hmmmm, what sort of puppy? a terminally ill dog that is about to die? one that is a sick puppy? one that was abused mistreated and on 'death row' anyways? one with rabies?

*shrugs*, I'll signup anyways, its actually a decent reason to skip a lecture... hmmmm, half tempted to let my lecturer know, but he might actually get our lecture group to sign up and then mark us on it...